Search and Rescue
by agirlnamedraven
Summary: The middle/end of Frostbite from Dimitri's pov. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I own nothing... it all belongs to Richelle Mead.


**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update! This one's a long one, at least by my standards. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to all of you who have reviewed! It really means a lot. Really. So thanks! As usual, none of this belongs to me; I am just enjoying playing around with the characters! On to the story. Enjoy!**

"Belikov, we have an emergency. Someone's attacked Johnson at the North entrance. We need to go on lockdown and get a head count. Go with Hathaway Senior and check the North side of the Lodge. Report back in fifteen minutes." Alberta spoke with the calmness of a weathered guardian. I sprang into action, instincts kicking in. Only for a moment did I let my mind wander to Rose, knowing that she could, and would take care of herself and those around her. I actually chuckled about the fact that Alberta was already calling Janine Senior, knowing Rose wasn't far behind her mother on the path of guardianship.

Once my skis were on, Janine and I headed out. We kept in touch with the other guardians through headsets, getting regular updates. Our fifteen minutes were up, so we reported back in.

"Base, this is Hathaway and Belikov. We have no sign of any intruder on the north side of the lodge." She called in. Even though most of the novices at the Academy thought that I was some sort of super-guardian; in truth, I'm not that high on the chain of command. Being twenty-four, it's just easier to allow those older to take control.

"Very well. Keep watch. We'll send people out to relieve you at 12:30. Base out." Came the voice of Alberta, the one in charge of coordinating the efforts.

"Roger that. Hathaway and Belikov out." Janine replied. For the longest time, the only sound either of us made was the swish of our skis across the newly falling snow. The birds were making their way into the awakening world. The sounds of chirping, combined with the beautifully arising sun and the smell of pines, were almost peaceful. Almost. Because in the back of my mind, I was still waiting to hear the announcement that all students were safely under lockdown, and that everyone was alright.

The sudden crackling of the radio made both her and me jump. "All units be advised, five students are unaccounted for, two Moroi and three Dhampirs. Mia Rinaldi, Christian Ozera, Mason Ashford, Eddie Castile, and Rosemarie Hathaway. Keep an eye out for these students; they may have been out on the remote trails and not have heard."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. I had known that she would be one of the names mentioned after hearing that Mason and Eddie were among those missing. Janine swore.

"Damn it! Why does that girl have to get into so much trouble? Why can't she be like the other novices?" she exploded with. I held my response locked up, because I knew it was one she wouldn't like.

"Well? I'm sure you must have some philosophical Zen story for me, Dimitri." The Hathaway women were more similar than either of them were willing to admit to.

"I think," I started, carefully, "that from a young age, the only attention she'd receive would be from the teachers. She found the easiest way to get this attention would be to act out. She has been very rebellious; that is, before she and Vasilisa disappeared. After coming back, she has been the poster child of responsibility. I would like to believe it has something to do with the daily trainings we have, but I can't deny the fact that those two years changed her. She's not the young girl you use to know, Janine. She has matured; she's a young woman. And in less than a year, she will be a guardian." I said.

It was something I had often though about. Rose had not tried to hide the scorn she held for her mother. It was hard for me to understand, because where I had been raised, the family was something to be valued. My mother was a kind, loving person. Of course we had our disagreements, but I always knew that she loved me, and cared about me. Rose, on the other hand, had been learning how to be a guardian literally from the time she could walk. As soon as she could, Janine handed her off to those at the Academy and headed back out into the field. Rose didn't know the kind of love I did. She didn't have that ever-present knowledge that her mother cared about her, loved her, or was proud of her. All she knew was that her mother never visited, and rarely communicated with her. And that had taken it's toll on her development. Rose was always cautious when entering any type of relationship with anyone. I could tell from the beginning, she had a hard time trusting me.

We scouted in silence for a little while longer. Glancing at the sky, I noticed it was almost noon. The familiar crackle of the radio broke the stillness of the air. "Base to Hathaway, we are sending replacements out now. Start heading in. Base out."

"Roger that. Hathaway out." Feeling a little worried, I looked at her. There was tension written all over her body. Needing to relax myself, I said, "Want to race back? Winner gets to chew out Rose when we find her." She grinned and took off.

Being light and skinny was very useful; however it was my body mass that allowed me to just slightly edge her out coming down the last hill. Feeling the wind whip around me left me feeling refreshed and awake. Until I saw Yuri. His grim face made me snap back from my temporary high immediately.

"What's wrong?" I called out, approaching the porch he was standing on.

"They're gone." He said. With those two words, my world started to collapse.

"Gone?" Janine was able to verbalize the question that just wouldn't come out of my mouth.

"Gone. The five of them are no where on the grounds of the lodge. The good news is that there's no Strigoi threat. Hathaway, I mean Rose, was the one who knocked out Johnson."

"If you could call that good news." I retorted. "That girl is mine when we get her back. I mean it." I said. She caused more trouble than anyone I had ever known. Except Ivan. She and Ivan would have made a great pair. It's why we normally got along so well. I had a lot of practice dealing with her type of personality being his guardian. Until that day… Damn that stupid son of a… who called himself a competent guardian. It's why I never take a day off. I won't let that same situation happen ever again.

"Well, I don't know… You know Alberta's gonna want to have some say…"

"I'll deal with it." I said, with a note of finality in my voice.

The first thing we did was go scout the town out. Groups of two guardians swept east to west, and north to south. Hathaway Senior and I went to the bus depot, considering if they were going to leave the town, that would have been the best bet.

When we got there, the shift was just changing. 'Damn it.' I thought. 'What if someone else had been on duty earlier?' Reaching the front of the line, I saw a bored man, probably mid forties, settling in for his shift.

"Excuse me sir, have you seen any unaccompanied teenagers in the past twelve hours?" I asked.

"Nope. My shift just started. But it's policy not to let unaccompanied minors buy tickets." He told me in a bored voice.

Knowing that mere policy wouldn't have stopped any of them, I began to describe them, before being rudely cut off. "I told you, we don't sell tickets to unaccompanied minors. Now if you're going to buy a ticket, tell me where you are going. If you aren't, then please move on. You're holding up the line."

I looked back and saw one person. "You have no idea what you're getting into…" I started before being cut off again, this time by Janine.

"Belikov." That was all she said, but I understood her tone perfectly. It said 'Drop it. We'll come back later. He's not worth it. Let it go.'

"бля, пошли все на хуй, мудаки" I muttered, thanking whatever God there was that most Americans were unilingual, and that if they were bilingual, it was either Spanish, French, German, Latin, and the occasional Asian language. Almost no one knew Russian.

We decided that the next best step would to be to go talk with Lissa. Janine felt sure that she would be able to tell us where Rose was, but I was pretty sure that the connection didn't work that way. I ran up the steps anyway, pushing any and everyone out of my way. I must have looked particularly deadly, because everyone took one look at my face and jumped out of the way. I got to Rose and Lissa's room before Janine, taking the few seconds I had alone to compose myself. Janine appeared beside me.

"Ready?" she asked.

I knocked on the door as my response. "Give me a minute, Rose. I'm getting ready for bed." Called Lissa.

"Lissa, it's Dimitri and Guardian Hathaway. We need to talk to you. Are you decent?" I called out. The sooner we got the information we needed, the sooner we could leave her in peace. Well kind of. She opened the door, looking frightened.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Where's Rose?"

"That's what we came to ask you." I said, keeping my voice calm and level. She didn't need to know the turmoil of emotions swirling inside me. It just wasn't like Rose to disappear like this, without telling anyone, for this length of time. My mind couldn't decide if it was mad, upset, angry, worried, or concerned. So I settled on calm.

"I don't know!" she exclaimed. "Why should I know?" she moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I know you want to protect them, but we need to know where they are." I repeated. She needed to understand just how important this was without being told all of the details. It was something one picks up the knack for, not so different from reading between the lines.

"I told you, I don't know. I don't know what happened." She said emphatically. I truly believed her when she said that, but unfortunately Janine didn't.

"I can't believe they wouldn't have told you where they were going. Especially with your… bond." Janine said. Lissa's look changed from one of annoyance to one of sadness, almost to the point of being hurt that they didn't let her in on whatever the five of them planned out.

"It only works one way. You know that." she said, sighing. Definitely feeling left out.

I knelt down in front of her, so I could be eye to eye with her. It was my experience that if you got down to their level, people would respond better. "Are you sure there's nothing? Nothing at all you can tell us? They're no where in town. The man at the bus station didn't see them… though we're pretty sure that's where they must have gone. We need something, _anything_ to go on." My voice pleaded. I was surprised Lissa or Janine didn't ask me any questions. The unprofessional worry in my voice was all too evident to me, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Glaring at me, she responded with, "Don't you think if I knew, I'd tell you? You don't think I'm worried about them too? I have _no_ idea where they are. None. And why'd they even leave… It doesn't make any sense either. Especially why they'd go with Mia., of all people." A tinge of jealousy colored the last sentence. It made me stop and think. Rose and Mia most certainly didn't get along well. They hated each other; so why'd they go off together? I let out a long sigh.

"If you hear anything from any of them…"

"You'll be the first to know, I promise." She said. Thanking her, we both turned and walked out the door.

"You did well with her, Belikov." Janine said, impressed.

"You just have to know how to handle different situations." I explained. It was something I had picked up from working so closely with both Ivan and Roza. "If someone feels cornered or scorned, then they will react aggressively, being as little help as they possibly can. But if you get down to their level, if you make them feel useful, then they tend to be more help." I said.

We then broke off, seeing as we had both run at least a forty hour shift. Heading back towards my room, I ran into Tasha. "She'll be fine, Dimka. She knows what she's doing."

"Well, at least someone does, because we have nothing." I replied, wearily. The loss of sleep, combined with the stress of worrying about my girl, my Roza, was taking it's toll.

"Go. Get some sleep, and start fresh again tomorrow. Maybe something will come up." She told me.

"Good night." And with that form of blessing, I disappeared into my room, closing the door behind me.

I slept about three hours, and then woke up, refreshed and ready to go. I grabbed a cup of hot chocolate, making sure to double the amount of powder called for. In the lobby, I ran into Alberta.

"What am I doing today?" I asked, anxious to get started.

"Today, you have patrol duty along the eastern border. It may have been Rose who attacked Johnson, but the threat is still out there. There is still a group of at least ten Strigoi terrorizing the Moroi community, so we still need to be on the watch."

"But… but… I need to find Ro… them. I need to find the students and bring them back." I started to say.

"But right now, we need you on border patrol. You'll be switching off with Janine every four hours for forty-eight hours. You can use your free time to do whatever you think will help, but make sure you make your shifts. You have the first one starting in a half an hour. You might want to start heading out there." She said. I knew she thought this was the best thing for me, but I really needed to be with the group of guardians actively searching. Muttering a few words low enough so that Alberta couldn't hear, I turned off and went to get my skis.

I was lucky, in the fact that the area I was given to patrol was smooth, and relatively open. I had a clear line of sight to both the person to my east, and the person to my west. The cold wind bit into me, through my clothes, making me pray they'd be found soon. The crisp air smelt refreshing, like nature. Standing guard reminded me of my time in Siberia, with my family.

My four hours went by faster than I expected. I soon saw Janine skiing out to relieve me. She had brought me a cup full of scalding hot chocolate. It was doubled, just the way I always made it. "Thanks" I muttered, heading back towards the lodge. It was going to be a long four hours off duty.

The time flew by, with me taking her hot coffee, and her bringing me hot chocolate. During one of my off shifts, I ran into Adrian.

"Guardian Belikov, I have some information for you." he said, sounding excited. "They're being held captive in a house somewhere, in a basement." It all came out in a rush of words.

"How do you know this?" I demanded. I needed to know if his information was credible, and how to use it.

"I can dream-walk…" he started to explain. "It happens when…" I wasn't really listening to his explanation. They were trapped in a basement somewhere, by only God knows who, doing God knows what.

"I have to go." I interrupted. I didn't care if he thought me to be rude. I needed to go to the gym and beat the living shit out of something. "Go tell Alberta what you know. She'll know what to do with the information you have."

I took off towards the gym, not caring if people thought I was a raving lunatic. In the gym, I started staking the practice dummies. It gave me a good workout. All around me I heard whispers.

"That's him, right? His student is Rosemarie Hathaway, one of the missing."

"Yeah, that's him. I don't know how he's doing it…"

"He must be really strong…"

"I know if it was my student, I'd be furious…"

Finally I couldn't take it any more. I abruptly left the room, watching heads turn as I walked out. I took a stroll around a small stream that wound its way behind the main lodge. Something just didn't fit right. Something Lissa had said. "Why they'd go with Mia., of all people…" it kept floating around in my head.

Snapping my head up, the answer came to me. And boy were a lot of people in trouble, including me.

"I need to speak with Alberta, now." I said, rushing into the commons area. Someone ran and got her as I caught my breath.

"What's wrong? Have you figured out more?" she asked.

I launched into my whole story about the Mia comment sticking, and then got to the meat of the story. "They are in Spokane. I told Rose about the probable location of the Strigoi, and for some reason, she must have told Mason. Mason, Eddie, and Mia went to Spokane to hunt down the Strigoi. Rose must have realized they had left, and went to try and bring them back with Christian. Somehow, they were captured. We need to go, now." I let out.

"Why… Never mind. I'll deal with you later." She said. A pang of guilt shot through me. I shouldn't have told Roza about the information, but I did. We all had to live or die with our mistakes.

A group was quickly assembled, with Janine and I leading. We jumped into the dark SUV's waiting for us, all gassed and ready to go. I was in the lead, and luckily, everyone was able to keep up. When we had reached the town of Spokane, the group split, looking for any sign of our kids.

An eerie silence fell over my group. No one wanted to be the one to talk, so we all walked on, mute. The silence was broken by the ring of my cell. It was open and up to my ear before it had a second chance to make a sound.

"Speak." I said, not wasting time.

"We found them. Got all of them… well almost."

"What the hell does that mean?" I shouted, forgetting that the person was talking to me through a phone and wasn't right beside me.

"We know at least one's dead, and one's stuck in the house, facing at least two Strigoi. Get over here now. Two blocks east, one block north." I was gone.

It reminded me of the time when rose took off unexpectedly. I understood it had to be about Lissa, and so I followed her calling out questions. She didn't answer any of them. I could hear the others in my group catching up.

"What's going on?"

"Where are we going?"

"Belikov… Belikov! ... BELIKOV!"

I ignored them all, pushing my body to the limits. I got to the house in less than three minutes.

"We have a situation." Janine said as soon as she saw me. "We have the Moroi and Eddie Castile, who's in bad condition. Mason Ashford is dead, and Rose… Rose won't leave..." She told me. The worry was written all over her face.

As soon as we had strong enough numbers, we went in. We had at least twenty guardians, stakes in hand, ready to kill any Strigoi in sight. Nothing could have prepared us for what we found, though. Entering the room where the carnage was, we found the two Strigoi beheaded in a corner. Rose… Roza was huddling protectively over Ashford's body.

There was an animalistic look in her eyes. She wasn't the same girl I knew and loved. Her expression was blank; she didn't recognize any of us. Yuri, Janine and I approached her slowly, knowing that she was liable to attack any of us.

"Stay back. Stay away from him." She growled. I no longer could recognize her. She had completely changed. We kept moving forward at a snail's pace. "Stay back!" she yelled, her eyes flashing with a dangerous glint. Without speaking, it was assumed that I'd be the one to deal with her.

I kept moving forward. "Rose." I said, trying to bring her back. She still had the old, unsharpened sword in her hands. "Drop the sword." I said. In the state she was in, a weapon in her hands was not good for any of us.

Her hands were shaking. "Get away from us." She whispered. The pain in her voice was almost tangible. It hurt my soul to see my other half this way. She… I didn't know if she'd ever be the same person again.

"Rose." I said again, trying to convey all of the love, comfort, and caring I felt for her at that moment.

And with that, something clicked. Her eyes started to focus, as if she was allowing herself to take in everything for the first time. Her eyes rested upon mine, and I saw the fear written all over.

"It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. You can let go of the sword." I said, making sure to keep my voice level and calm. She needed a strong rock to anchor herself to, and I would be it.

"I can't. I can't leave him alone. I have to protect him." She said, her tone dead serious. She still hadn't accepted the fact that Mason had died, that he didn't need protection any more.

Still, she needed comfort. "You have." I said softly. The response was the clattering of the sword hitting the ground. The whole room let out a collective sigh of relief. Worry still gripped me, so when she collapsed, I was right by her side. It seemed like she wanted to cry, even needed to cry, but couldn't. Not yet. He still wasn't dead yet. Just like with Ivan.

I knelt with her for a few moments more, and then decided it was time to slowly start moving towards the door. I stood up, keeping my arms around her. She clutched me as if I was her life preserver, something to keep her above the waves of darkness that threatened to overwhelm her. I tried to pull her off in the direction of the door, but she wouldn't move.

She turned her head away from the rest of the room and let it rest against my chest. The terror returned to her; I could tell by the rate of her breathing. Softly, so just the two of us could hear, I began murmuring a Russian lullaby my mother use to sing me whenever I was scared. Her breathing once again slowed, matching mine. But not for long. Some idiots forgot she was still in the room.

"She did that? Both of them?"

"That sword hasn't been sharpened in years!"

Some sort of noise tried to escape from my Roza. It still hurt, knowing that she was in pain. Maybe not physical pain, though I saw blood on her hands. By the looks of it, she had used shards of glass as a weapon. It would need to be checked out later. But I knew she was in emotional pain. It was written all over her face.

"Get her out of here, Belikov." Janine said. There was no question as to who would take care of her. It would be my job. She was my student, my love, my friend. I was probably the only one here she trusted.

"Come on, Roza. It's time to go." I said quietly, aware everyone was listening and watching, ready to assist me if need be. It wasn't necessary. She followed my lead. Out of the house we went. I guided her into the backseat of one of the school's SUV's, sliding in beside her. She didn't look at me, or anything in particular.

We drove to the closest airstrip. The Academy had sent backup out on one of the jets, so that's what we'd be getting home in. I led her to a seat close to where I would be sitting, just in case she'd need me.

Alberta motioned to me that she needed to talk, so I turned to Roza and said, "I'll be back in a minute, Roza. Just call if you need me." She just looked straight ahead, not moving, not crying, not saying a word. That was what worried me the most. She had yet to speak more than a few words to anyone.

I moved towards the front of the plane to where Alberta was standing. "How is she doing?" were the first words out of her mouth.

"I honestly don't know. I think she'll be okay… after a while. She won't ever be the same again."

"Who of us are?" she interjected. "She's made her first two kills, and seen a close friend die for the first time. We all change after something like this. It tends to wake us up; make us realize what's really important." She continued.

I glanced back toward Roza, knowing what was really important, no matter how hard I tried to deny it to myself. Roza was important, more so than she should have been. But nevertheless, she had worked her way into my heart, starting the day we met. She had been the one who had allowed me to feel again, after Ivan. Janine had just sat down beside her. I yearned to be back there, with her. But she needed time with her mother.

Watching Roza, I knew immediately when something changed. All of a sudden, huge sobs wracked her body. Her mother leaned in to comfort her, knowing the pain we all go through. As Roza's sobs grew, I felt another small piece of my heart crumble.


End file.
